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More Than an Umbrella Construct

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In line with these long-standing calls, Jill Brown argues that within the domain of business and society, and arguably of management and organization studies more broadly, we still need to pay more attention to context theorizing.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 19, 2024

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This video video discusses the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its evolution as an "umbrella term" that encompasses various obligations of businesses to society. Initially criticized in a 2010 article by Gand and Crane for being theoretically vague and lacking empirical evidence in measuring corporate social performance, the speaker argues that significant progress has been made since then. They assert that CSR has become better defined and measurable, with ongoing research pushing for specific social impact assessments.

The speaker emphasizes that CSR should not be conflated with stakeholder theory, as they are distinct concepts. CSR covers four key dimensions: economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary obligations. While it is often perceived solely as philanthropic, all four aspects are essential for understanding how businesses relate to society.

The discussion also highlights the importance of context in CSR theorizing. Contextual factors—global, cultural, institutional, and organizational—play crucial roles in shaping CSR practices and outcomes. The speaker points to various studies that illustrate how CSR functions differently across regions and industries, suggesting that context should guide CSR approaches.

Finally, the text advocates for more qualitative and quantitative research to validate CSR's impact, encouraging scholars to investigate diverse contexts where CSR initiatives yield social effects. The notion is that businesses can indeed contribute positively to society through effective CSR strategies while pursuing their financial objectives.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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Why has CSR become an umbrella term?

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Well, research scholars have seen it

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as a very broad concept,

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and it's, it's about the obligations of business to society.

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So, in essence, it is a pretty broad term.

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However, the, the idea that

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CSR might simply be an umbrella construct was actually,

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positive in an article by, two authors, Gand

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and Crane in 2010, in the Business

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and Society Journal, where this current article,

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this editorial we've, we've put there about CSR

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as an umbrella term, originated from.

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So Gand Crane in 2010 suggested that it is

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a construct that is still very theoretical.

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Theoretically, ill-defined

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and lacks empirical validity in the measures of its outcome,

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corporate social performance.

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And, perhaps back in 2010 that was true.

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But I do, I don't quite agree with that.

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I think we've come a long way in defining

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and measuring corporate social responsibility.

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Um, and in fact, not only have we come a long way,

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I actually think that kind of helped us to push even further

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to find better measures of corporate social performance.

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In fact, a recent article by, Michael Barnett,

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a Remi Henrique

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and Brian Husted, in the journal,

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also cited the idea

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that corporate social responsibility initiatives should be

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pushed to go even further to account for social impact.

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Again, more specific outcomes

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to corporate social responsibility.

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So that's good. Um,

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but I also think some of the idea

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of corporate social responsibility as an umbrella term

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when it's used as a criticism, it also comes from people

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that often conflate stakeholder theory

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with corporate social responsibilities.

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And that's problematic,

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because these are two very distinct concepts.

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Stakeholder theory is about the exchanges that take place

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between a business and its ecosystem of stakeholders.

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Corporate social responsibility is less about the exchanges.

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And again, really goes back to that very broad,

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what are the obligations of business

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to society as a whole?

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So it is a broader term,

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but also people fail to remember

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that corporate social responsibility has four dimensions

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to it, the economic, legal,

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ethical, and the discretionary

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philanthropic elements to it.

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And these are all the considerations that are important

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to business and its relationship to broad society.

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So, people often think

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of corporate social responsibility as

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that discretionary element at the top of the old pyramid

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of corporate social responsibility.

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But in essence, under the obligations of a business

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to society, they have to make money.

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So they have to stay in business, the economic, they have

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to be legal to stay in business as well.

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It's expected that they are ethical,

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that businesses are performing ethically,

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and it's really hope.

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We desire, we hope that businesses are philanthropic.

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So again, why has corporate social responsibility been

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considered an umbrella term?

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Because of its broad nature, I tend to take a more

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optimistic view of that umbrella term,

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as a good thing, and,

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and take it less from a critical standpoint,

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that it is not specific enough or it, it's ill-defined.

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And all that being said, when my co-authors at Business,

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business and Society and myself wrote this editorial about

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CSRs as an umbrella term

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and using context for theorizing,

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this is where we see the benefits of context to continue

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to push and push that construct

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of corporate social responsibility towards those

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measurable outcomes.

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So the benefits of using context

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for theorizing around CSR is it encourages a very

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diversity related

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or a diversity oriented research agenda.

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One that explains the heterogeneity

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and variations of how businesses approach CSR.

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It also helps us to better understand the motivations

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of business and towards corporate social responsibility.

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So there's, there are a lot of benefits

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to this in the article.

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We also, we highlight, like, one great example

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of this is Dima Jamali, Dima Jamali,

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and her co-authors published a study in 2017 in the journal

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where they look at the institutionalization

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of CSR in developing country settings.

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So they dive deeply into small and medium sized businesses,

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and they actually look at the, the football manufacturing

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industry in North India.

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It's a rich context that helps us understand how CSR is used

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and applied in a different setting.

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Uh, and I encourage people to take a look at that,

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that article as well.

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So those are some of the benefit of theorizing

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through context, and there are many more of them.

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We have another one about the oil

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and mining industry by Kathy Rabine and Trish Olson.

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It's just really rich. It's an empirical study.

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So we've come a long way since 2010.

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Um, but, but more left to do, of course, this article

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actually was produced by the Business and Society Journal.

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I wrote the article with my,

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my co-editors from the journal.

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And I was, I felt it was really important

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to begin discussions around corporate social responsibility

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with this idea that oftentimes it's been talked about

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as a, an umbrella term.

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And when I say it's been talked about that way back in 2010,

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there were, two scholars, train and,

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and Gand who came up with this, kind of,

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I would say somewhat cynical,

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article about corporate social responsibility.

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And said that they felt

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that it was very theoretically ill-defined

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and lacked some empirical validity in the measures

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of its outcome, corporate social performance.

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So I decided it was about time that we got together

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and addressed that and, really talked about the idea

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that yes, CSR may be considered an umbrella term

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because it's very broad.

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You know, broadly, the concept

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of corporate social responsibility is about the obligations

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of business to and within society.

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So just by definition, that's very broad

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and might be considered an, an umbrella term, right?

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But the idea that it's theoretically ill-defined,

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I feel we've come a long way in the last 12 to 15 years.

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We could certainly do a little bit better.

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And maybe by context theorizing, that's

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where I've started talking about context theorizing.

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We could do that, and I'll talk

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about that in a minute, of course.

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But I have to say again, I think we've come a long way

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in defining and measuring corporate social responsibility.

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That though that conversation about

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that umbrella term has even pushed us

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to do a little bit better

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and a little bit more in terms of measuring.

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So for example, there's been a recent article that came out

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by, by, Michael Barnett, Irene,

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Henrique and Brian Houston.

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And their article about was about designing CSR initiatives

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and saying that we should push ourselves as researchers

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and as businesses

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to be even more specific about the outcomes

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of corporate social responsibility

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and actually measure social impact.

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So, you know, I think we're pushing ourselves by,

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by actually referring to it as an umbrella con con concept

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to do even better in measuring it.

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The other problem I see though, is that I see that people

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tend to conflate stakeholder theory

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with corporate social responsibility.

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And that's a problem if,

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if they're saying CSR is an umbrella construct, I often say,

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well, let's make sure you're defining CSR correctly,

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and that you're not conflating it with stakeholder theory.

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Because stakeholder theory is about exchanges.

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It's about the exchanges that take place between a business

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and its ecosystem of stakeholders.

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Corporate social responsibility is not necessarily about

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the exchanges.

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So it's again, about the obligations of business

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to society.

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So it's a broader term by definition.

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Um, and the last thing I'll say about the term itself is

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that people often forget that it

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actually incorporates four different dimensions.

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Corporate social responsibility is about the economic,

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legal, ethical, and discretionary

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or philanthropic obligations of business to society.

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So people will often think of it just in that philanthropic

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side of it, the, the top of the old pyramid.

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Um, but it's really,

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it incorporates all of those elements.

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So to say that, CSR is only discretionary

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that philanthropic never forget that.

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It does involve the economic businesses have

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to make money to stay in business.

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So, but they also,

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and they have to be legal to stay in business.

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We expect them to be ethical,

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and we, we hope that there'll be,

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philanthropic on top of it.

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So all of, for all of those reasons, I see that yes,

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CSR is broad enough to be considered an umbrella term,

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but with the criticism about that, that it is ill-defined,

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and that it is,

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empirically it hasn't been empirically validated,

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I kind of push against that.

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'cause we come a long way since there are a lot of benefits

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as well to theorizing through context.

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I think that's the next step, right?

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Talking about how we theorize through context.

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And, there are a couple important

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points along those lines.

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So the benefits of theorizing through context is

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that it, in it encourages a real, what we call a diverse

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oriented research agenda, when that kind

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of explains the heterogeneity and the variations

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and how businesses approach corporate social responsibility.

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So one of, again, one of the benefits, it encourages,

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you know, not a one size fits all.

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It allows us to see how CSR is used in different contexts.

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And it also helps to explain kind of

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and understand the motivations

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of a business towards corporate social responsibility.

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So one of the things that we do in this article about,

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exploring the context theorizing,

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is we point to a couple articles.

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So for example, Dima Jamali,

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and her co-authors published a really nice article in our

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journal, the Business

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and Society Journal about the football manufacturing

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industry in North India.

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A fascinating article because they look at small

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and middle sized companies,

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and they kind of invoke a very critical perspective

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of CSR in that context.

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It actually helps them to

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be more specific in defining CSR as one

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that incorporates an awareness

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and the impact of the business on society on this wide range

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of stakeholders involved in this football,

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manufacturing industry in North India.

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So that's a great example of how context pushes us further

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to define CSR for small

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and middle size companies, again, not a one

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size fits all cons, it can be by region.

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So there can be cultural aspects, that

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where CSR varies across different kinds of organizations,

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but also broadly globally, how it can,

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it can change and vary depending on the,

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the global context of a business.

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Um, you can, so you can think about, you know,

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cultural aspects broadly, again, by different organizations,

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different industries, or globally.

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I think you can take it to the institutional level

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and talk about the institutional things, aspects

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that are con that provide context

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to corporate social responsibility.

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So for an example, another thing that I've been, a type

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of research that I've been thrilled

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to see is the research done in India

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on their mandates at the institutional level,

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at the government level, how their mandates

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for corporate social responsibility have, come across

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and, and been embraced by businesses and has it been good

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or has it been bad?

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You know, those kind of context framing

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around institutional, context can,

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can create new discussions

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and new theorizing on corporate social responsibility.

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If we wanna take a North American viewpoint,

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you can think about the government regulations

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or maybe even the mandates on the stock exchanges around,

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sustainability

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and, new measures that are, if not mandated,

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encouraged along the lines of e, s and G.

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So again, those are some of the, so that's cultural,

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the institutional, the global,

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and then you can even take it down

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to the organizational level and talk about maybe the CEO

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and the board and the top management team

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and how some of their behaviors that context

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shapes the decision making

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around corporate social responsibility.

15:14.905 --> 15:18.405
So you can see, you asked about what are the, the aspects

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of context, and I've kind of broken it down

15:21.025 --> 15:23.525
to this article actually was produced

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by the Business and Society Journal.

15:25.525 --> 15:27.365
I been pretty controversial.

15:28.065 --> 15:32.485
Um, does it actually encourage the kinds

15:32.485 --> 15:34.925
of corporate social responsibility initiatives

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that provide social impact

15:37.625 --> 15:41.645
or does it allow companies to checklist for things

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that they wanted to do anyway

15:44.065 --> 15:46.565
and now they get some help from the government.

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So that is a rich context and a good example of the cultural

15:51.425 --> 15:52.725
and global aspects,

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and that now the institutional aspects,

15:55.495 --> 15:56.765
government level, right?

15:57.265 --> 15:59.165
If you wanna take a North American context,

15:59.345 --> 16:03.445
we can talk about some of the, mandates

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or rules and regulations around reporting,

16:08.545 --> 16:12.445
of, of sustainability initiatives or,

16:12.665 --> 16:15.285
or the kind of, even the implicit mandates

16:15.305 --> 16:20.125
around better social auditing or sustainability issues

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and climate change issues or hiring issues.

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So all of those things, can shape, the,

16:28.665 --> 16:30.565
the focal processes

16:30.565 --> 16:34.805
and outcomes associated with CSR take it down one more level

16:35.465 --> 16:39.005
to the, to the top management team, CEO.

16:39.025 --> 16:43.165
The boards of directors and their decision making,

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or even their behavioral aspects,

16:47.035 --> 16:49.935
in their decision making can inform

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and shape corporate social responsibility

16:52.175 --> 16:53.215
processes and outcomes.

16:53.355 --> 16:55.695
So these are just a few examples,

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but you can see, I, I tend to think

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of it at different levels of analysis,

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and that's the beauty of, this broad construct

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of corporate social responsibility

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because we can look at multi-level, aspects.

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Um, and then in, in terms of this,

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the long-term social impact of CSR policies,

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again, I'm very Pollyanna-ish in my approach to this.

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For those who don't know what that means, it means I'm

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hopelessly optimistic all the time

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about corporate social responsibility and performance.

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And the long-term social impacts of,

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of strong CSR policies is business growth,

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better stakeholder engagement

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and retention, customer retention and loyalty,

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but also community growth, the potential

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for address addressing inequities along the social impacts

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that businesses can have.

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So the, the, the long-term social impact

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of corporate social responsibility policies, CSR policies

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and initiatives, the world is there.

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I mean, businesses I firmly believe, believe businesses

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are a force for good.

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That's actually my university's motto.

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And, and the way that we use,

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businesses can use corporate social responsibility can

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have huge impacts.

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Uh, it, it doesn't have to just be with nonprofits

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or social entrepreneurs who are also wonderful,

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groups of businesses.

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Um, they, they are also wonderful groups of businesses.

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But, but business, even in their quest

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for bottom line profits have the opportunity

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to do so to provide social impact as well.

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And that's part of CSR.

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Remember, economic, legal, ethical and discretion.

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The, the implications of this is really, it's, it's,

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it's encouraging.

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So the implications are that

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we think there are a lot more opportunities.

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Business and society scholars,

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CSR scholars think there are a lot more opportunities

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for being a little bit more granular,

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less broad maybe on corporate social performance

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and social impacts.

19:21.495 --> 19:25.435
So if we think about that, the idea of social impact,

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then this call for more research, helps with that.

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The call for more research around context.

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Tell us, give us the, the qualitative,

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ethnographic studies that point to,

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you know, long-term social impact.

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So more qualitative research.

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I think that's a, that's a great thing

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because that also helps

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with our empirical validity, through context.

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You know, qualitative research,

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good qualitative field studies, ethnographic studies help us

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to, validate the concept of CSR.

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But then even on the more empirical quantitative side

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of things, we are getting better.

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The, institutions are getting better at identifying

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large databases

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and data sets that have gathered by companies, by,

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by social responsible investments.

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SRI funds around socially responsible companies.

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So there's more and better data out there every day

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that relies less

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and less on the self-report measures from businesses.

20:33.975 --> 20:38.595
So we have more, more triangulation, I would say,

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and opportunities for that in context theorizing.

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So there you go. Those are the implications of the review.

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Review. And again, it points to the fact that we need

20:50.775 --> 20:54.745
need, we are encouraging more and broader context.

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Let's give us more global companies, give us more,

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event studies after a certain institutional mandate,

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something happens, on the social impact side.

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So again, we put in, in this article, we talk about a lot

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of implications for this, including this, you know,

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looking at the, these differences in the interpretations,

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the assumptions and the constructs

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and the methodologies around corporate social

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responsibility.

Understanding CSR as an Umbrella Term

00:00:00 - Why has CSR become an umbrella term? Well, research scholars have seen it as a very broad concept, and it's, it's about the obligations of business to society. So, in essence, it is a pretty broad term. However, the, the idea that CSR might simply be an umbrella construct was actually, positive in an article by, two authors, Gand and Crane in 2010, in the Business
00:00:36 - this editorial we've, we've put there about CSR as an umbrella term, originated from. So Gand Crane in 2010 suggested that it is a construct that is still very theoretical. Theoretically, ill-defined and lacks empirical validity in the measures of its outcome, corporate social performance. And, perhaps back in 2010 that was true.
00:01:06 - I think we've come a long way in defining and measuring corporate social responsibility. and in fact, not only have we come a long way, I actually think that kind of helped us to push even further to find better measures of corporate social performance. In fact, a recent article by, Michael Barnett, a Remi Henrique and Brian Husted, in the journal,
00:01:37 - that corporate social responsibility initiatives should be pushed to go even further to account for social impact. Again, more specific outcomes to corporate social responsibility. So that's good. but I also think some of the idea of corporate social responsibility as an umbrella term when it's used as a criticism, it also comes from people that often conflate stakeholder theory with corporate social responsibilities.
00:02:10 - because these are two very distinct concepts. Stakeholder theory is about the exchanges that take place between a business and its ecosystem of stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is less about the exchanges. And again, really goes back to that very broad, what are the obligations of business to society as a whole? So it is a broader term,
00:02:42 - that corporate social responsibility has four dimensions to it, the economic, legal, ethical, and the discretionary philanthropic elements to it. And these are all the considerations that are important to business and its relationship to broad society. So, people often think of corporate social responsibility as that discretionary element at the top of the old pyramid

Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility as an Umbrella Concept

00:03:12 - But in essence, under the obligations of a business to society, they have to make money. So they have to stay in business, the economic, they have to be legal to stay in business as well. It's expected that they are ethical, that businesses are performing ethically, and it's really hope. We desire, we hope that businesses are philanthropic. So again, why has corporate social responsibility been considered an umbrella term?
00:03:45 - optimistic view of that umbrella term, as a good thing, and, and take it less from a critical standpoint, that it is not specific enough or it, it's ill-defined. And all that being said, when my co-authors at Business, business and Society and myself wrote this editorial about CSRs as an umbrella term and using context for theorizing,
00:04:18 - to push and push that construct of corporate social responsibility towards those measurable outcomes. So the benefits of using context for theorizing around CSR is it encourages a very diversity related or a diversity oriented research agenda. One that explains the heterogeneity
00:04:51 - It also helps us to better understand the motivations of business and towards corporate social responsibility. So there's, there are a lot of benefits to this in the article. We also, we highlight, like, one great example of this is Dima Jamali, Dima Jamali, and her co-authors published a study in 2017 in the journal where they look at the institutionalization
00:05:22 - So they dive deeply into small and medium sized businesses, and they actually look at the, the football manufacturing industry in North India. It's a rich context that helps us understand how CSR is used and applied in a different setting. and I encourage people to take a look at that, that article as well. So those are some of the benefit of theorizing
00:05:50 - We have another one about the oil and mining industry by Kathy Rabine and Trish Olson. It's just really rich. It's an empirical study. So we've come a long way since 2010. but, but more left to do, of course, this article actually was produced by the Business and Society Journal. I wrote the article with my, my co-editors from the journal. And I was, I felt it was really important to begin discussions around corporate social responsibility

Clarifying Corporate Social Responsibility as an Umbrella

00:06:23 - as a, an umbrella term. And when I say it's been talked about that way back in 2010, there were, two scholars, train and, and Gand who came up with this, kind of, I would say somewhat cynical, article about corporate social responsibility. And said that they felt that it was very theoretically ill-defined
00:06:53 - of its outcome, corporate social performance. So I decided it was about time that we got together and addressed that and, really talked about the idea that yes, CSR may be considered an umbrella term because it's very broad. You know, broadly, the concept of corporate social responsibility is about the obligations of business to and within society.
00:07:22 - and might be considered an, an umbrella term, right? But the idea that it's theoretically ill-defined, I feel we've come a long way in the last 12 to 15 years. We could certainly do a little bit better. And maybe by context theorizing, that's where I've started talking about context theorizing. We could do that, and I'll talk about that in a minute, of course. But I have to say again, I think we've come a long way
00:07:55 - That though that conversation about that umbrella term has even pushed us to do a little bit better and a little bit more in terms of measuring. So for example, there's been a recent article that came out by, by, Michael Barnett, Irene, Henrique and Brian Houston. And their article about was about designing CSR initiatives and saying that we should push ourselves as researchers
00:08:25 - to be even more specific about the outcomes of corporate social responsibility and actually measure social impact. So, you know, I think we're pushing ourselves by, by actually referring to it as an umbrella con con concept to do even better in measuring it. The other problem I see though, is that I see that people tend to conflate stakeholder theory with corporate social responsibility.
00:08:56 - if they're saying CSR is an umbrella construct, I often say, well, let's make sure you're defining CSR correctly, and that you're not conflating it with stakeholder theory. Because stakeholder theory is about exchanges. It's about the exchanges that take place between a business and its ecosystem of stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is not necessarily about the exchanges.

Dimensions and Context of Corporate Social Responsibility

00:09:29 - to society. So it's a broader term by definition. and the last thing I'll say about the term itself is that people often forget that it actually incorporates four different dimensions. Corporate social responsibility is about the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary
00:10:00 - So people will often think of it just in that philanthropic side of it, the, the top of the old pyramid. but it's really, it incorporates all of those elements. So to say that, CSR is only discretionary that philanthropic never forget that. It does involve the economic businesses have to make money to stay in business.
00:10:29 - and they have to be legal to stay in business. We expect them to be ethical, and we, we hope that there'll be, philanthropic on top of it. So all of, for all of those reasons, I see that yes, CSR is broad enough to be considered an umbrella term, but with the criticism about that, that it is ill-defined, and that it is, empirically it hasn't been empirically validated,
00:11:01 - 'cause we come a long way since there are a lot of benefits as well to theorizing through context. I think that's the next step, right? Talking about how we theorize through context. And, there are a couple important points along those lines. So the benefits of theorizing through context is that it, in it encourages a real, what we call a diverse oriented research agenda, when that kind
00:11:34 - and how businesses approach corporate social responsibility. So one of, again, one of the benefits, it encourages, you know, not a one size fits all. It allows us to see how CSR is used in different contexts. And it also helps to explain kind of and understand the motivations of a business towards corporate social responsibility. So one of the things that we do in this article about,
00:12:06 - is we point to a couple articles. So for example, Dima Jamali, and her co-authors published a really nice article in our journal, the Business and Society Journal about the football manufacturing industry in North India. A fascinating article because they look at small and middle sized companies, and they kind of invoke a very critical perspective of CSR in that context.

Contextual Variations in Corporate Social Responsibility

00:12:37 - be more specific in defining CSR as one that incorporates an awareness and the impact of the business on society on this wide range of stakeholders involved in this football, manufacturing industry in North India. So that's a great example of how context pushes us further to define CSR for small and middle size companies, again, not a one
00:13:09 - So there can be cultural aspects, that where CSR varies across different kinds of organizations, but also broadly globally, how it can, it can change and vary depending on the, the global context of a business. you can, so you can think about, you know, cultural aspects broadly, again, by different organizations, different industries, or globally.
00:13:38 - and talk about the institutional things, aspects that are con that provide context to corporate social responsibility. So for an example, another thing that I've been, a type of research that I've been thrilled to see is the research done in India on their mandates at the institutional level, at the government level, how their mandates for corporate social responsibility have, come across
00:14:12 - or has it been bad? You know, those kind of context framing around institutional, context can, can create new discussions and new theorizing on corporate social responsibility. If we wanna take a North American viewpoint, you can think about the government regulations or maybe even the mandates on the stock exchanges around, sustainability
00:14:44 - encouraged along the lines of e, s and G. So again, those are some of the, so that's cultural, the institutional, the global, and then you can even take it down to the organizational level and talk about maybe the CEO and the board and the top management team and how some of their behaviors that context
00:15:11 - around corporate social responsibility. So you can see, you asked about what are the, the aspects of context, and I've kind of broken it down to this article actually was produced by the Business and Society Journal. I been pretty controversial. does it actually encourage the kinds of corporate social responsibility initiatives that provide social impact or does it allow companies to checklist for things

Contextual Influences on Corporate Social Responsibility

00:15:44 - and now they get some help from the government. So that is a rich context and a good example of the cultural and global aspects, and that now the institutional aspects, government level, right? If you wanna take a North American context, we can talk about some of the, mandates or rules and regulations around reporting, of, of sustainability initiatives or,
00:16:15 - around better social auditing or sustainability issues and climate change issues or hiring issues. So all of those things, can shape, the, the focal processes and outcomes associated with CSR take it down one more level to the, to the top management team, CEO. The boards of directors and their decision making,
00:16:47 - in their decision making can inform and shape corporate social responsibility processes and outcomes. So these are just a few examples, but you can see, I, I tend to think of it at different levels of analysis, and that's the beauty of, this broad construct of corporate social responsibility because we can look at multi-level, aspects. and then in, in terms of this,
00:17:19 - again, I'm very Pollyanna-ish in my approach to this. For those who don't know what that means, it means I'm hopelessly optimistic all the time about corporate social responsibility and performance. And the long-term social impacts of, of strong CSR policies is business growth, better stakeholder engagement and retention, customer retention and loyalty,
00:17:51 - for address addressing inequities along the social impacts that businesses can have. So the, the, the long-term social impact of corporate social responsibility policies, CSR policies and initiatives, the world is there. I mean, businesses I firmly believe, believe businesses are a force for good. That's actually my university's motto.
00:18:21 - businesses can use corporate social responsibility can have huge impacts. it, it doesn't have to just be with nonprofits or social entrepreneurs who are also wonderful, groups of businesses. they, they are also wonderful groups of businesses. But, but business, even in their quest for bottom line profits have the opportunity to do so to provide social impact as well.

Enhancing Research in Corporate Social Responsibility

00:18:53 - Remember, economic, legal, ethical and discretion. The, the implications of this is really, it's, it's, it's encouraging. So the implications are that we think there are a lot more opportunities. Business and society scholars, CSR scholars think there are a lot more opportunities for being a little bit more granular, less broad maybe on corporate social performance and social impacts.
00:19:25 - then this call for more research, helps with that. The call for more research around context. Tell us, give us the, the qualitative, ethnographic studies that point to, you know, long-term social impact. So more qualitative research. I think that's a, that's a great thing because that also helps with our empirical validity, through context.
00:19:55 - good qualitative field studies, ethnographic studies help us to, validate the concept of CSR. But then even on the more empirical quantitative side of things, we are getting better. The, institutions are getting better at identifying large databases and data sets that have gathered by companies, by, by social responsible investments. SRI funds around socially responsible companies.
00:20:29 - that relies less and less on the self-report measures from businesses. So we have more, more triangulation, I would say, and opportunities for that in context theorizing. So there you go. Those are the implications of the review. Review. And again, it points to the fact that we need need, we are encouraging more and broader context. Let's give us more global companies, give us more,
00:21:22 - something happens, on the social impact side. So again, we put in, in this article, we talk about a lot of implications for this, including this, you know, looking at the, these differences in the interpretations, the assumptions and the constructs and the methodologies around corporate social responsibility.

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